The hosts stormed into the final by finishing top of the table for the sixth successive season. The Steelmen carved out their route to the Sardis showcase by finishing third after they won 11 of their last 12 league fixtures, finishing just a single point ahead of Gwent rivals Cross Keys. Nigel Davies’ men then travelled West and earned a hard-fought 20-16 triumph at Llandovery’s Church Bank thanks to tries from Premiership Player of the Year Ronny Kynes and winger Jared Rosser.
Ponty won their final four games of the season to earn their final points total of 81. However, their last defeat was at Eugene Cross Park, where Ebbw earned a 34-8 victory to complete the league double after they had overcome the front-runners 26-18 at Sardis back in November. But captain Dafydd Lockyer says his side owe one to their title rivals.
He said: “We will finish off a long hard season with a massive game against Ebbw Vale on Sunday. The success of the whole campaign hinges on that eighty minutes with everything to play for.
“Ebbw will be coming down to us full of confidence having done the double over us in the league, but then we owe them one and with the experience we have of competing in the Play-Off Finals over the years, we will have confidence in our own ability to win. We know that we will need to put in a big shift to claim the Premiership trophy, but we have it in us to achieve that.”
The final appearance caps a remarkable rise for Ebbw Vale, who only earned promotion from the SWALEC Championship in 2014. And head coach Nigel Davies has told his men to carry on their resurgent form and embrace their underdog tag in the hostile Sardis Road environment.
He said: “It’s been a really big effort in the second half of the season to put ourselves in this position and I am very proud of the players. We were up and down and not really going anywhere until we had a bit of a mid-season review.
“From there we have moved forward as a group, turned things around and it’s been a real success story whatever happens on Sunday. This group defines itself by its teamwork and team ethic; they have such a belief in each other. That will be key at Pontypridd because it’s going to take a huge effort.”
